And of course, further forward, the passenger compartment offered the sort of unburstable solidity for which 1980s Mercedes have since become prized, paired – if you were willing to pay for it – with luxurious, wood-lined trimmings. The options list was also replete with many of the high-tech extras that had started to trickle down from the big W126 S-Class; cruise control, climate control, and even a CD autochanger were all available. 

The S124 lasted right through until 1995, with more than 340,000 examples sold – the most of any Mercedes estate of its size to date. By the time production came to an end, it was no longer the only Mercedes estate car in the range; the S202 C-Class Estate had already been previewed, although it didn’t enter production until 1996, and with it came a new phenomenon: a smaller Mercedes estate.

Mercedes needed a car like this to compete with BMW. The Munich outfit had been caught napping by the S124; it wasn’t until 1992 that it had managed to field an estate version of its 5-Series. However, what it did have on its side was the smaller 3-Series Touring, the brainchild of a BMW engineer who had built a prototype in his garage; as a result, the idea of a small, sporty estate that might appeal to younger buyers was soon one BMW was making its own. After Audi joined in with the 80 Avant in 1991, Mercedes had to act – and so, somewhat, belatedly, the S202 came into being.

Mercedes quality infamously took a dive through the late 1990s, but there were still bright spots for fans of its estates. Most notably, the first official production performance wagons came into existence. First came the C36 and E36 AMG models, and these were later joined by the even more potent C43 and E55 versions (there was even a rare E60), the latter with a thumping V8 under its bonnet, setting  a template for the performance estates for which Mercedes is known today. 

These AMG versions grew wilder with each iteration as both C-Class and E-Class were respectively replaced in 2000 and 2003 respectively, but it wasn’t until 2012 that we saw the arrival of the most flamboyant production Mercedes estate of all: the X218, more commonly known as the CLS Shooting Brake.